Death Isn't a Laughing Matter, Fred
by shapealunarworld
Summary: While George helps clean up Hogwarts, he discovers the Mirror of Erised and gets a chance to talk to Fred again, just for one last time...


**Disclaimer: Don't own HP or any of the characters. (Now that I think about it, when you say "own the characters", it sounds really ethically wrong. LOL.) J.K. Rowling does. **

**Author's note: Okay...this miiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhht be OOC. It's just that I'm paranoid. Takes place after DH. **

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><p>As George Weasley was sweeping the stony Hogwarts floor, helping to clean up Hogwarts (the rebuilding was almost done), something caught his eye.<p>

A huge, magnificent mirror, with an ornate medieval-looking (well, that was what George thought) frame. Fascinated, George dropped the broom reached out to touch the tiniest details embossed and engraved in the mirror. _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. _He then proceeded to study his looks, and he saw a man that looked just like him.

Except that man had two ears.

And a cocky grin that George did not possess.

"Fred," George whispered, a tear trailing down his freckled cheek.

"Georgie," Fred responded. "Greetings, brother of mine whom I love so much. You've discovered the Mirror of Erised. To see what it does, why don't you read that weird language sentence backwards? It tells you something."

George did as Fred said. _Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo __urhe arts desire. I show not your face but your heart's desire, _George corrected in his mind. "It says, 'I show not your face but your heart's desire', Freddie. Erised is desire backwards."

"That's right, Georgie. You see me, your heart's desire," Fred replied with a sad smile.

"_Fred_," George sobbed.

"Yes?"

"I _hate _you so much. You promised me! We promised each other that we'd die side by side, together. When I have the chance, I'll bloody kill you. I hate you, Fred!" George cursed. "I bloody hate you and I bloody hate this mirror." More tears streamed down George's face, his nose and eyes becoming red and puffy, his cheeks becoming pink and a bit itchy. He stood there for a few minutes, trying to get all of it out of his system. When it did, George looked up and still saw Fred, but George wasn't killing Fred in the mirror.

"You're not seeing yourself killing me, George, because then you'd be really happy at the news of my death and you wouldn't care about me."

"I'm sorry, Fred," George apologized. "I really do love you very much." George touched the mirror. Maybe he felt this only in his delirium, but George was surprised to feel a warm hand touching back.

"Do you want me to come get you?" Fred asked quietly.

"So much!"

"Don't say that! Don't say that ever again!" George had expected to die, and see Fred taking his hand, the twins ascending to the sky. Instead, he got this. It was Fred's turn to cry and sob violently. "I already knew the answer! I shouldn't have asked you that. It hurts…so much, to see you like this, thinking of dying…" Fred's voice trailed off."It hurts so much to see your dead body on the bloody pebbly ground...and then turning around, all of us Weasleys, for a split second and then we can't find your body," George murmured. One minute, everyone, Percy and George especially, was crowded around the lifeless body that once held a boisterous, extroverted soul. The next minute, the body had...vanished, seemingly, into thin air.

"Would you like to find it?"

George whimpered and nodded vigorously.

"Take both of your hands and press them against this mirror." George did, and he felt Fred's hands grab George's. This definitely _wasn't _delirium.

"Now, pull me up, will you?"

George did, and Fred stepped out of the mirror with ease.

"FRED!" George cried. "What's happening?"

Fred could barely conceal his signature lopsided grin. "I only faked death. It was quite lucky for me, actually, that none of you thought of feeling a heartbeat. Since we're both good Legilimens, I took up a bit of Occlumency so that you couldn't read my mind and tell I was faking it. I also Charmed my body to make it feel cold when touched by someone else, but not myself. Then, when you turned around, I ran away. I discovered the mirror in an empty classroom, here, where we are, that was safe, like the Room of Requirement. I Charmed the mirror so I could get into it and hide. With luck again, this classroom remained untouched by the War." Fred broke into a sprawl of hysterics onto the floor, looking like he'd had too much firewhiskey. On the other hand, George could hardly contain his anger and tears. He gritted his teeth and finally stomped his foot in rage.

"Whoa, Georgie!" Fred exclaimed. "What's wrong?"

"It's not _funny_!" George screamed. "You prat, Freddie, that wasn't funny at all! This is serious! Wars aren't something to make fun of, Fred." Tears again made their way down George's cheeks. "Don't you ever leave me like that again." George threw himself at Fred, burying his face in Fred's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, George," Fred whispered, rocking him and George back and forth in an attempt to calm George. "I felt that a prank should help everyone relax...but I was wrong. I'm so sorry, Georgie."

It took a long while before all the adrenaline worked its way out of George's system and George's eyes were no longer waterfalls. By then the twins went to tell the rest of the Weasleys and the others of the good news. While many people who fought in the war were still grieving over their losses, having Fred back was one less burden to grieve over.

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><p>Fred and George now lay in their beds pushed together, in the flat above their shop, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes (which had recently become a big money spinner and one of the most popular shops out there in London). Their legs were carelessly entwined, like vines, and Fred was softly singing a Muggle song from a Muggle movie called <em>Annie<em>. He wasn't quite sure what song it was; he reckoned it was called "Tomorrow". George loved to hear Fred lull him with his "absolutely velvet-chocolate voice", as George would say.

"I'm sorry again, George," Fred apologized, "for faking death."

"I forgive you, Freddie," George whispered. "Just keep this in mind, will ya?"

"What?"

"Death isn't a laughing matter, Fred."


End file.
